When it comes to mainstream movies commenting on political issues this year, Jay Roach's satirical comedy may be as bold as it's going to get. Will Ferrell dumbs down his George Bush impersonation to portray Cam Brady, a raffish North Carolina Congressman. Backed by the billionaire Motch brothers (John Lithgow and Dan Aykroyd), who are more like the quaintly rapacious siblings in Trading Places than the real-life Brothers Koch, Brady expects to run unopposed for another term. Unfortunately, he has the libido of a Bill Clinton, and when he leaves a message on the wrong voicemail, the Motches decide to make a change. In Capra-esque fashion they convince Marty Huggins (Zach Galiafinakis, a duller-witted version of Jack Black's Bernie), the effete scion of an old political family, to challenge Brady for the seat. It's a battle of two kinds of idiocy, and the film's scatalogical pratfalls and crude lampooning of the obvious overwhelm its faintly liberal bleeding heart.
